<p>Named for Aristotle’s son Nicomachus who was the first to edit this work <em>The Nicomachean Ethics</em> plays a prominent role in defining Aristotelian ethics. In the ten books of this work Aristotle explains the good life for man: the life of happiness.</p> <p>For Aristotle happiness exists when the soul is in accordance with virtue. Virtue exists in a deliberate choice of actions that take a middle course between excess and deficiency; this is the famous doctrine of the “golden mean.” Courage for example is the mean between cowardice and rashness. Justice is the mean between a man’s getting more or less than his due. The supreme happiness according to Aristotle is to be found in a life of philosophical contemplation or at least in a virtuous life of political activity and public munificence.</p> <p>A student of Plato and a teacher of Alexander the Great Aristotle is one of the towering figures in Western thought.</p>